An artist’s rendering of townhouses proposed at the Laramie Farms development in Enfield, N.H. (Courtesy of D.C. Development)
A plan to build a roughly 300-unit housing development near downtown is one step closer to fruition after the Zoning Board of Adjustment last week approved a request to allow an access road off Route 4 to cross two wetlands.
The road — which will expand on an existing access point to the town’s water tower — will be the main entrance for residents.
“The project provides housing, which is a critical need in the State of New Hampshire,” the developers wrote in the special exception application submitted to the ZBA.
The vote was 4-1, with member Dan Regan the lone dissenter, during the ZBA’s meeting last week. The approval is the latest request granted by the ZBA for Laramie Farms — which would be the town’s largest housing development.
The project is being proposed by John Dibitteto, of Maple Street-Enfield Acquisition LLC, based in Bradford, Mass., and his development partner Stephen Doherty, of DC Development and Construction, based in Sandown, N.H. A majority of the proposed units would be apartments and the rest would be townhouses.
Last week’s approval of the access road between the state highway and Maple Street came in spite of residents’ concerns about excess water in their Maple Street neighborhood since logging began on the site a few years ago.
“You really can’t minimize the impact of water coming off that hill … changing that in any way can have further impact,” Maple Street resident Sharon Beaufait said in a recording of last week’s hearing.
As part of its approval, the ZBA added a condition that the emergency access road from Laramie Farms to Maple Street be made of pervious material, such as gravel, to better control the amount of water runoff from the development to residences on Maple Street.
Resident Celie Aufiero implored town officials to think about Enfield’s master plan and zoning ordinance in their approach to making decisions about the development.
“What this town is doing … what we voted not to do, not to impact our natural resources,” said Aufiero, who has has served on various town boards for over 40 years. “Enfield doesn’t want this kind of thing.”
During the meeting, the developers also responded to concerns about the effect the development would have on wetlands on the property, including “10 separate locations of wetland impacts, all considered low function/value wetlands,” according to the special exception application submitted to the ZBA.
“We’re not going to fill in a lake or a pond, something that’s a major water body,” John Cronin, a land use and zoning attorney who is representing the developers, said in a recording of the meeting. The developers have also committed to building retention ponds to mitigate runoff from the development as part of a stormwater management plan for the site.
Since the initial plans were proposed, the developers modified their plans and were able to reduce the wetland impact from 76,000 square feet to 58,100 square feet. Regan asked how they were able to accomplish that.
“The further along with the design we go, the more tight we can get things, the more refined we can get things,” said Karl Dubay, a civil engineer who is working with the developers. “We paid special attention to those,” he added about the wetlands.
Last week was not the first time the project has faced opposition from neighbors.
Last May, the ZBA approved two variances for the project: One that would allow the developers to exceed the zoning ordinance’s height restrictions by constructing buildings up to 73 feet tall — more than twice the town’s current 35-foot limit — and another that would allow them to put more than one building on each primary lot. The 77-acre project site is comprised of two separate parcels. Regan also was the sole ZBA member to vote against the May variances.
Abutters Linda Jones and Alv Elvestad are currently challenging the height variance approval in the Hillsborough County Superior Court, Northern District Land Use Review Docket.
Arguments were presented earlier this month and the judge has up to 60 days to make a decision.
The developers still need approvals from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the Enfield Planning Board, among other entities, before beginning construction. Part of that process includes conducting hydrology studies which can help explain the way water would move throughout the site.
ZBA member Bob Cusik said that he thought the special exception request was reasonable.
“We should approve it so they can get to their next step because that’s where the experts come in,” he said.
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